Hawkeye director teases Disney+ series is 'all of the best comedy from Marvel in one TV show'

After some of the heavier themes in WandaVision, Loki, and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Hawkeye will seek to lighten the MCU mood with a festive tale of two disparate archers teaming up in New York City to take down a host of unsavory characters in the run-up to Christmas.

"The tone is so special," series co-director Katie Ellwood (of the creative duo Bert and Bertie) said at the Los Angeles premiere Wednesday evening. "It's almost like all of the best comedy from Marvel came together in one TV show ... It does have this ebb and flow of the comedy and then there [are] these really deep, emotional, and very human moments."

Ellwood's directorial partner, Amber Templemore-Finlayson, addressed the Christmas element, explaining that the holly jolly setting lends a note of "absurdity" to the proceedings.

"Everything that happens is not to do with Christmas, other than [Clint] trying to get home to his family," she explained. "Just to kind of celebrate that and we shot it just before Christmas last year, so everything was starting to get Christmas-y, so it really felt like it. But I think it just brings another layer to this story. We all love films that are set at Christmas and we all have those films that we reference. Hopefully, Hawkeye will become one of those."

Head writer and executive producer Jonathan Igla echoed that sentiment, voicing his hope that the series will become an annual viewing staple like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon — both of which seem to have influenced Hawkeye in some way.

You can get a sense of Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) and Kate Bishop's (Hailee Steinfeld) odd couple dynamic in a newly-released featurette aptly-titled "BFFs."

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was also present at the world premiere and stressed that each of the shows cranked out by Marvel Studios is given just as much care and attention as the films. "These are just as big as our movies," he said. "So having something like this, a celebration of debuting the first two episodes, is great." 

He then went on to discuss the grounded stakes: "It's not necessarily about the end of the world. It's not necessarily about somebody coming and blowing up the Earth. It's about, 'Will Hawkeye make it home for Christmas?' And, obviously, introducing Kate Bishop and meeting a whole bunch of new characters who will continue — we hope — throughout the MCU."

Hawkeye's first two episodes will arrive on Disney+ next Wednesday — Nov. 24. A spinoff for Alaqua Cox's Maya Lopez/Echo was confirmed to be in the works during Disney+ Day last Friday.

"I love the fans," Cox said at the red carpet event, speaking through a sign language interpreter. "They're finding little things that I didn't even realize ... It's fascinating because some of the Twitter fans are crazy with the specifics and everything."